Holly pouted and shook her head. "There is no excuse for anything, is there?" It was a childish assertion, but she'd spent so much of the summer being treated like a child that it was difficult to return to an environment where she was expected to act her age. "I only mean - I just want a little bit of excitement. Why does every year at Hogwarts seem less interesting than the last? Is every year like that?" It was a sudden shift from the topic of exaggerating maids and murder, but it was more indicative of her underlying concern: she was going to be trapped in an uninteresting existence forever.

"And once I am graduated, and I will have no friends, no excuse to spend my day reading, and you will be here while I am in London. Doesn't that bother anyone else?" Holly had known her priorities were different from the other girls she knew, but she did not think she would ever work herself up to a point where she thought it was a bad thing.

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